Introduction to Relativity & Time Dilation

• The Principle of Newtonian Relativity

• Galilean Transformations
• The Michelson-Morley Experiment
• Einstein’s Postulates of Relativity
• Relativity of Simultaneity
• Time Dilation
• Homework

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 The Principle of Newtonian Relativity
• The laws of mechanics must be the same in all inertial
frames of reference.
• An inertial frame is one in which Newton’s 1st law is
valid.
• Any frame moving with constant velocity with re-
spect to an inertial frame must also be an inertial frame.
• This does not say that the measured values of physical
quantities are the same for all inertial observers.
• It says that the laws of mechanics, that relate these
measurements to each other, are the same.

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 Two Inertial Reference Frames
• The observer in the truck sees the ball move in a ver-
tical path when thrown upward.
• The stationary observer sees the path of the ball to be
a parabola.
• Their measurements differ, but the measurements sat-
isfy the same laws.

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 Galilean Transformations
• Consider an event that occurs at point P and is ob-
served by two observers in different inertial reference
frames S and S 0, where S 0 is moving with a velocity
v relative to S as shown below
• The coordinates for the event as observed from the
two reference frames are related by the equations known
as the Galilean transformation of coordinates
x0 = x − vt y 0 = y z0 = z t0 = t

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 Galilean Addition of Velocities
• Suppose a particle moves a distance dx in a time in-
terval dt as measured by an observer in S
• The corresponding distance dx0 measured by an ob-
server in S 0 is
dx0 = dx − vdt

• Since dt = dt0, we have

dx0 dx
= −v
dt 0 dt
or
u0x = ux − v

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 Michelson-Morley Experiment
• In the 19th century, physicists believed light, like me-
chanical waves, required a medium to propagate through
and they proposed the existence of such a medium
called the ether
• The ether would define an absolute reference frame
in which the speed of light is c
• The Michelson-Morley experiment was designed to
show the presence of the ether

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 Michelson-Morley Experiment (cont’d)
• The ether theory claims that there should be a time
difference for light traveling to mirrors M1 and M2
• No time difference was observed!

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 Einstein’s Postulates
• The Relativity Postulate: The laws of physics are the
same for observers in all inertial reference frames.
– Galileo and Newton assumed this for mechanics.
– Einstein extended the idea to include all the laws

of physics.
• The Speed of Light Postulate: The speed of light in a
vacuum has the same value c in all directions and in
all inertial reference frames.

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 Tests of the Speed of Light Postulate
• Accelerated electron experiment: Bill Bertozzi (MIT)
showed this in 1964 by independently measuring the
speed and kinetic energy of accelerated electrons
Kinetic energy (MeV) 6


Ultimate speed
4

2 



0 1 2 3
Speed (108 m/s)

• π 0 → γγ decay experiment (CERN 1964)

vγ = c
v 0= 0.99975c
π

vγ = c

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 Relativity of Simultaneity
• Two lightning bolts strike the ends of a moving box-
car.
• The events appear to be simultaneous to the observer
at O, who is standing on the ground midway between
A and B.
• The events do not appear to be simultaneous to the
observer O 0 riding on the boxcar, who claims the front
end of the car is struck before the rear.
• A time measurement depends on the reference frame
in which the measurement is made.

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 Time Dilation 1
• The observer at O 0 measures the time interval be-
tween the two events to be
2d
∆tp =
c

• The two events occur at the same location in O 0s ref-

erence frame, and she needs only one clock at that
location to measure the time interval, so we call this
time interval the proper time.
• The observer at O uses two synchronized clocks, one
at each event, and measures the time interval to be
s
2
1

2L 2 2 v∆t + d2
∆t = =
c c

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 Time Dilation (cont’d)
s
2 2
1 1
 

∆t =
2 2 v∆t + 2 c∆tp
c
1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2
c ∆t = v ∆t + c ∆tp
4  4 4
c2 − v 2 ∆t2 = c2∆t2p
c∆tp
∆t = √ 2
c − v2
∆tp
∆t = s 2
1 − vc
 

• It is convenient to define the speed parameter as β = v

c
and the Lorentz factor as γ = √ 1 2
1−β

• Then the time dilation expression can be written as

∆t = γ∆tp

• Since we must have v < c, γ > 1, and ∆t > ∆tp

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 Time Dilation (cont’d)
• All clocks will run more slowly according to an ob-
server in relative motion (this includes biological clocks).

• Time dilation has been tested and confirmed on both

the microscopic (lifetimes of subatomic particles) and
macroscopic (flying high precision clocks in airplanes)
levels.

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 Example
The elementary particle known as the positive kaon (K+)
has, on average, a lifetime of 0.1237 µs when stationary-
that is, when the lifetime is measured in the rest frame
of the kaon. If a positive kaon has a speed of 0.990c in
the laboratory, how far can it travel in the lab during its
lifetime?

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 Example Solution
The elementary particle known as the positive kaon (K+)
has, on average, a lifetime of 0.1237 µs when stationary-
that is, when the lifetime is measured in the rest frame
of the kaon. If a positive kaon has a speed of 0.990c in
the laboratory, how far can it travel in the lab during its
lifetime?

∆tp
∆t = s
v 2
 
1− c

0.1237 × 10−6s
∆t = s
2 = 8.769 × 10−7s
0.990c

1− c

8
  
−7
d = v∆t = (0.990) 3.00 × 10 m/s 8.769 × 10 s = 260 m

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 Homework Set 16 - Due Wed. Oct. 20
• Read Sections 9.1-9.4
• Answer Questions 9.2 & 9.4
• Do Problems 9.1, 9.2, 9.6, 9.9 & 9.13

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